In 2004, the SmartWay Transport Partnership was created by several companies and the United States Environmental Protection Agency with the goal of advancing environmentally responsible logistics and transportation. In 2010, the California Air Resources Board program implemented rules requiring EPA SmartWay-approved fairings to be attached to trailers to reduce the aerodynamic drag on the trailers. Between 2010 and 2015, a dramatic increase in the number of trailers equipped with fairings has occurred with a corresponding increase in development and improvement of these fairings.
Two of the more common fairings that have been attached to over-the-road trailers are skirts secured to the underside of the trailer and rear drag reducers that extend from the back doors of the trailer. Each of these fairings present their own set of challenges. Being low to the road, the skirts are often damaged when the trailers pass over railroad tracks. The rear drag reducers are elevated away from the road and are less likely to be damaged from road debris, but the rear drag reducers increase the overall length of the trailer and must be disassembled, disengaged, or removed when the contents of the trailer are to be unloaded through the rear doors.
A Notable attempt that was made to solve some of the problems associated with trailer fairings includes the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,431,381 issued to R. Wood that claims to cover “an improved method and device for the reduction of aerodynamic drag and for improved performance of bluff base vehicles by increasing the pressure on the bluff base of the vehicle by controlling the wake flow and the interaction of the wake flow with the vehicle bluff base region.”